So far, about two dozen deaths have been reported in Jamaica from Hurricane Melissa, and it’s amazing that that toll is not higher, given what some forecasters were describing as “unsurvivable” conditions.

And while we collectively grieve for those families who have lost loved ones, we really do have to give thanks for the resilience of the Jamaican people.  Melissa was not our first hurricane.  We know what to do.  

I remember before it hit, a lot of Jamaica’s were upset about the sensationalism by some of the foreign journalists, saying things like Jamaica would be wiped off the map, and that “unsurvivable” statement that really irked a lot of people.

Now when you put it in context, they were reporting from their experience with other storms.  When you think about the scale of Melissa, how it broke records in so many ways for wind speed, rapid development and other things, and you think back to other infamous Cat 5’s like Maria, Matthew, of course Katrina, Mitch, we’re looking at death tolls in the hundreds or thousands.

Hurricane Maria killed over three thousand people across Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the eastern Caribbean.

Katrina killed almost 1,400 people in New Orleans.

Hurricane Mitch, I’ll never forget it, killed over 1,100 people when it slammed into Honduras in 1998.  That one was supposed to come to Belize.  I was in second or third form at the time and the entire Belize City evacuated to my tiny hometown of Belmopan.  Mitch was barreling straight toward us.  Then all of a sudden it just stopped, sat out in the sea at like zero miles per hour for a day or two, and then changed direction and went south to destroy Honduras.  It would have wiped out my little country.

So when the forecasters use words like “unsurvivable”, that’s what they’re thinking about.

Now the death toll from Melissa is likely to rise as more assessments are done, but the fact that today, October 31, three days after its passage, we haven’t heard any reports of mass casualties, is truly miraculous.  This is the clip that sums it up for me.

“If this storm no teach me nutten, you see the other day, I was saying to myself that people praise material things so much.  

“And today is the day when everybody ask me, ‘yuh alright?’  Me have life! Everybody appreciate life.  

“At this moment, no big house no mean nutten. No big car no mean nutten.  No land no mean nutten.  Life is everything right now.  Everybody, ‘yuh alright?’  Me lose me house but me have life!” – Hurricane Melissa survivor in Westmoreland

And that’s the bottom line.

If you would like to assist, you can donate through the Jamaican government’s official platform: supportjamaica.gov.jm

If you prefer a non-governmental organization, you can give through foodforthepoor.org

And if you’d like to give your time, the Council of Voluntary Social Services, is organizing trips to the hardest hit areas.  Follow them @cvssjamaica on Instagram.  Click HERE to volunteer.